The following abbreviations and terms are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description of the present disclosure.
3 GPP 3rd-Generation Partnership Project
AGCH Access Grant Channel
ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
BLER Block Error Rate
BS Base Station
BSS Base Station Subsystem
CC Coverage Class
CCCH Common Control Channel
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
DRX Discontinuous Receive Cycle
DSP Digital Signal Processor
EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
EGPRS Enhanced General Packet Radio Service
FCCH Frequency Correction Channel
FN Frame Number
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
GERAN GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
IE Information Element
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IoT Internet of Things
LTE Long-Term Evolution
MS Mobile Station
MTC Machine Type Communications
NAS Non-Access Stratum
PCH Paging Channel
PDN Packet Data Network
RACH Random Access Channel
RAN Radio Access Network
RFN Reduced TDMA Frame Number
RRC Radio Resources Control
SCH Synchronization Channel
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
SI System Information
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TSG Technical Specifications Group
UE User Equipment
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Coverage Class: At any point in time a device belongs to a specific uplink/downlink coverage class which determines the total number of blind transmissions to be used when transmitting/receiving radio blocks. An uplink/downlink coverage class applicable at any point in time can differ between different logical channels. Upon initiating a system access a device determines the uplink/downlink coverage class applicable to the RACH/AGCH based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed by the BSS receiver/device receiver to experience a BLER (block error rate) of approximately 10%. The BSS determines the uplink/downlink coverage class to be used by a device on the device's assigned packet channel resources based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed to satisfy a target BLER and considering the number of HARQ retransmissions (of a radio block) that will, on average, result from using that target BLER.DRX cycle: Discontinuous reception (DRX) is a process of a wireless device disabling its ability to receive when it does not expect to receive incoming messages and enabling its ability to receive during a period of reachability when it anticipates the possibility of message reception. For DRX to operate, the network coordinates with the wireless device regarding when instances of reachability are to occur. The wireless device will therefore wake-up and enable message reception only during pre-scheduled periods of reachability. This process reduces the power consumption which extends the battery life of the wireless device and is sometimes called sleep mode.Extended Coverage: The general principle of extended coverage is that of using blind repetitions for the control channels and for the data channels. In addition, for the data channels the use of blind repetitions assuming MCS-1 (i.e., the lowest modulation and coding scheme (MCS) supported in EGPRS today) is combined with HARQ retransmissions to realize the needed level of data transmission performance. Support for extended coverage is realized by defining different coverage classes. A different number of blind repetitions are associated with each of the coverage classes wherein extended coverage is associated with coverage classes for which multiple blind repetitions are needed (i.e., a single blind repetition is considered as the reference coverage). The number of total blind transmissions for a given coverage class can differ between different logical channels.Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices based on the infrastructure of the International Telecommunication Union's Global Standards Initiative. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.
As described in 3GPP TSG-GERAN Meeting #63 Tdoc GP-140605, entitled “GSM Evolution for cellular IoT-PCH Overview” (the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference), wireless devices (e.g., those used for machine type communications (MTC)) can operate using different coverage classes and can be expected to make use of different discontinuous receive (DRX) cycles ranging from minutes to hours or even days depending on the frequency of reachability desired for such wireless devices. As such, these wireless devices can transmit information to the radio access network (RAN) regarding their desired DRX cycle length within Radio Resources Control (RRC) or Non-Access Stratum (NAS) messages (e.g., GPRS Attach or Routing Area Update messages), thereby allowing the RAN or the Core Network (e.g., SGSN) to determine the periodicity with which the wireless devices will wake-up to look for a page according to their nominal paging group associated within their desired DRX cycle. The total number of paging groups per DRX cycle can be determined based on coverage class, since each coverage class will need a different number of Paging Channel (PCH) block repetitions within the context of a single paging group. For example, considering a wireless communication network wherein a single 51-multiframe supports 8 PCH blocks, it can be the case where the desired DRX cycle Y=256 51-multiframes≈60 seconds (e.g., exactly 208 of these DRX cycles will occur within the overall TDMA Frame Number (FN) space of 2715648 TDMA frames). Accordingly, the number of paging groups supported within DRX cycle Y can be determined by the coverage class of a wireless device that operates using that DRX cycle as follows:                PCH blocks per DRX cycle=PB_DRX_CYCLE=256×8=2048.        Coverage Class 1: Paging groups per DRX cycle Y=PB_DRX_CYCLE=2048        Coverage Class 2: Paging groups per DRX cycle Y=PB_DRX_CYCLE div 2=1024        Coverage Class 3: Paging groups per DRX cycle Y=PB_DRX_CYCLE div 4=512        Coverage Class 4: Paging groups per DRX cycle Y=PB_DRX_CYCLE div 8=256        Coverage Class 5: Paging groups per DRX cycle Y=PB_DRX_CYCLE div 16=128        
In the interest of extreme power savings, wireless devices may benefit from DRX cycles longer than the longest time reference currently available within the Global System for Mobile (GSM) frame structure. In this regard, the existing TDMA FN space supports values ranging from 0 to 2715647, which spans a time interval of 208 minutes and 53.76 seconds (i.e., the hyperframe length) and will therefore be inadequate for supporting DRX cycles that are longer than this time interval. For example, if a wireless device has a DRX cycle of three times the hyperframe length (i.e., ≈10 hours, 26 minutes, and 41 seconds), then both the radio access network node (network) and the wireless device would need to agree on which hyperframe the nominal paging group occurs in order for the radio access network node (network) to know when to page the wireless device and for the wireless device to know when to listen for the page on the PCH. This does not exist today. Hence, a solution to this need and other needs is provided in the present disclosure.